Flora
Norwegian flora is made up of vegetation typical of a temperate climate. It belongs to approx. 250 flowering plant species. The highlands and northern regions are dominated by mountain and polar vegetation. Common oak trees, large white flowers with eight petals, they grow on calcareous soil. The high mountain sorrel is also a beautiful mountain species, rich in vitamin C.; glacier buttercup; various saxifiers (all year round, moss, purple, conical and star-shaped); mountain dandelion, vetch, creeping azalea, mountain bitterness, forget-me-nots, the mustachioed bell, forest anemone, psyllium and mountain aster. Heathers grow mainly in the lower areas, in the vicinity of the seaside. For more information, see Mountain Flowers in English, which can be purchased at DNT (68 nkr), and the item in Norwegian, Norsk Fargeflora Finna Winschmanna, published by NKS Forlaget.
The lower fertile areas are covered with mixed forests, which, next to conifers, are made up of ash trees, elms, linden trees, oaks, buki, Norwegian maples and alders. Fruit trees, like apple trees and plum trees, they grow in a sheltered place, coastal area, especially around the Hardangerfjord. In the mountain forests of western Norway, at heights up to 900 – 1200 m conifers and birches dominate. The coastal islands are less forested than northern Norway (i.e.. in the district of Troms and in southern Finnmark), and the lower boundary of forests can be very low: 200 – 300 m.
Scots pine is present in forests on the edges of great plateaus and in southern Norway, Norwegian spruce, aspen, silver birch, hazel, black alder, mountain ash, and in the higher parts, dwarf birch, willow and juniper.
Mainly mosses grow between the tier of dwarf trees and the snow line, mushrooms and lichens, like for example. reindeer moss. Mountain grasses, including sedge and polar cotton, they are mainly found in swampy areas and high in the mountains. The saxifrage and a number of smaller plants can be found near the border of the summer snow range, characteristic of the tundra.
Despite the harsh arctic conditions, short growing season, srogich zim, low rainfall, Svalbard has poor soils and long-lasting frosts. 165 plant species that like a thin layer of soil, including dwarf willow and polar birch, and a variety of flowers and tundra lichens.
Hiking enthusiasts will be delighted with the abundance of blueberries, usually growing low to the ground, and ripening between mid-July and the beginning of September. American blueberries are among the most popular varieties, found in the open highlands; bluish, blueberries and blackberries who like wet soil; red mud cranberries, growing on tall and low shrubs and dwarf shrubs; jellyfish and beautiful, amber colored cloudberries. Considered a great delicacy of cloudberries (in Norwegian moltebsei) they ripen one berry on one stalk in the open, swampy terrain. In the polar region of neighboring Sweden and Finland, almost all the inhabitants go out to collect these delicious fruits., but in Norway, cloudberries are jealously guarded.